FACULTY SENATE MEETING
MINUTES
February 9, 2009
3:15 p.m., 601 Rudder Tower
http://facultysenate.tamu.edu

Present:    Derya Akleman, Carisa Armstrong, Karl Aufderheide, Wolfgang Bangerth, Guy Battle, Robert Bednarz, Michael Benedik, Tom Blasingame, Dragomir Bukur, Tahir Cagin, Antonio Cepeda-Benito, Louise Darcey, Walter Daugherity, John Fackler, Holly Gaede, Carlos Gonzalez, Melinda Grant, Michael Greenwald, Robert Griffin, James Heilman, Joe Jaros, Eluned Jones, Guido Kanschat, Larry Kelly, Andrew Klein, Rafael Lara-Alecio, Robyn Lints, Carol Loopstra, Clinton Machann, R.N. Mahapatra, Sam Mannan, Lanny Martindale, Robert McGeachin, Kathryn McKenzie, Tim Murphy, Bo Norby, Brian Perkins, Angie Hill Price, Dan Roelke, Roger Schultz, Douglas Slack, Robin Smith, Kathleen Speed, Susan Stabile, Richard Stadelmann, John Stallone, Robert Stewart, Bob Strawser, Elizabeth Tebeaux, Winfried Teizer, Manuelita Ureta, John Van-Huyck, Tom Vogel, Nancy Volkman, Hank Walker, Robert Warden, Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson, Thomas Welsh, William West, Gary Wingenbach, Thomas Woodfin, Debra Zoran

Paul Parrish (Interim Dean of Faculties)

Absent:    Louise Abbott, Stephen Atkins, James Aune, Gwendolyn Carroll, Joe Cerami, Keith Chaffin, Iftekharudd Choudhury, Thomas DeWitt, Rainer Fink, Mariah Hahn, Mike Hanik, Richard Hutchinson, Vikram Kinra, Andre Landry, Thomas Linton, Leon Luxemburg, Christopher Mathewson, Peter McIntyre, Mary Meagher, Michael Messina, Adam Myers, Ramona Paetzold, Frederic Pearl, David Peterson, Weston Porter, Khalid Qaraqe, Lynn Ruoff, Jorge Seminario, Karen Snowden, Ramesh Talreja, Frank Thomas, Hamid Toliyat, Theodore Turocy, Jyotsna Vaid, Gary Varner, Matthew Whiteacre, Kirk Winemiller

Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 3:15 by Speaker Clint Magill. Speaker Magill opened the meeting by welcoming guests and senators. There was no senator from Galveston one senator from Qatar present but was unable to connect via videoconferencing.

Guest Speaker:
Speaker Magill welcomed our first guest speaker Ashton Stinnette with The Big Event Committee. The following items were discussed:

• In 2008 the Big Event had c. 10,000 students involved as they performed over 1100 tasks.
• This year’s event is scheduled for March 28, with a goal of 12,000 students to work on 1300 tasks.
• The Senate is asked to promote the Big Event to faculty and students.
• Participation forms are due at Student Activities office in the Koldus Building by Feb. 27.

Speaker Magill then welcomed the next guest speaker Dr. Karan Watson, Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Interim Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity. She had a handout for everybody. (SEE ATTACHMENT)
Dr. Watson said she was speaking as in her role as Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives to ask for input on Faculty Evaluations. The following items were discussed:

• The Deans have expressed concern about the timeline (end of February) for implementation.
• Compliance is the only mandated aspect of the document; there are options for individual units re implementation and specific elements for measuring outcomes.
• Dr. Watson addressed issues related to “multi-disciplinary” work in research and teaching: the intent is to establish support and provide recognition for multi-disciplinary work in all areas of responsibility.
• Re diversity and internationalization: it is important that faculty who enhance TAMU through their work on diversity/internationalization be recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Individual units will decide the degree to which faculty will be measured for these contributions.
• State law and System regulations require on-line periodic training; compliance is important for departments and individuals. Those who do not comply will not receive a “satisfactory” rating in their annual report.
• Safety compliance rules must also be enforced; individual units will have to help define what constitutes “safety” procedures for their disciplines.

Questions for Dr. Watson:
Senator Price asked how the process guarantees that administrators will actually engage faculty in discussion and will consider their ideas.
KaranWatson: Noted that Provost Vitter has told Deans to participate in this project. Rules do not dictate that a vote must be taken on an individual item, but Deans should consider faculty input.

Senator Price suggested that the document does not provide sufficient examples for diversity.
KaranWatson: Specifics will be added as document becomes finalized.

Speaker Magill noted that his lab has safety guidelines in place, but many are inconsistent and often make little sense.
KaranWatson:  Yes: many safety rules/requirements are in place, but individual units will have to determine what is reasonable to insure safety within their labs and work places.

Senator Price asked Dr. Watson to describe exactly what her new job entails?
KaranWatson: Emphasized that she is not “the Queen.” She works with the Provost and campus leaders on the Master Plan to make it a useful vehicle for developing strategies to implement the Plan and secure funding. She is also working on SACS accreditation to insure that TAMU will be certified in 2012. She also performs other duties “as assigned.” As Vice President for Diversity she is continuing work, in conjunction with the Provost, already begun in her other roles, with a particular emphasis on equity issues.

Senator Blasingame noted that the service and engagement portion (p. 4) appears to have been written by Administrators.
KaranWatson: Invited input from all constituencies so that the new guidelines are not an administrator-driven document.

Provost Vitter clarified that the material on p. 4 was intended to be for multi-disciplinary aspects of the document.

Senator Woodfin asked why there is no mention of Promotion and Tenure Committees within departments in the document.
KaranWatson: Said that because of timeline considerations, this issue will be handled at a later stage. At this time, the emphasis is on annual reviews.

Senator Woodfin noted that departments pay summer salaries for faculty, but that summer salaries do not come from the Deans. This raises problems with study abroad efforts because there does not seem to be an incentive to increase funding for those who wish to lead study abroad programs.
KaranWatson: Acknowledged that there are many current inhibitors that will need to be addressed before all elements of evaluations can be implemented. TAMU needs to minimize inhibitors and provide incentives to promote all of the desired outcomes of the new process.

Senator Woodfin thanked the Provost for increasing funding for Study Abroad.

Senator Blasingame noted that the College of Engineering has successfully implemented procedures to insure compliance. 

Speaker Comments:
Speaker Magill reminded the Senators about the Aggie Spirit Award and we passed the hat for donations. He then discussed the spring elections coming up soon and that we will be seeking nominations to fill the expiring seats. He encouraged Senators to help in finding faculty that would be interested in running for vacant seats. He then stated that the nomination period will be February 23 thru March 6 and nomination ballots will be distributed at that time.

Speaker Magill reminded the Senators that the joint meeting with the University of Texas Faculty Council is set for March 2 in Austin starting at 11:30 and ending by 4:00 at the AT&T Executive Education Conference Center. He noted that Provost Vitter will be providing a bus to take everyone. Magill urged who can make the trip to do so.

Magill stated that as speaker he has fielded many calls from reporters, including Time, the Houston Chronicle and the Chronicle of Higher Education concerning the cash for student evaluations or SLATE program. He said he has tried to make the case, that even just the perception, whether real or not, that scores might be related to grades could be detrimental to the value of an A&M degree. He discussed how his quotes did not end up the same in the articles even though they were sent in writing.

Speaker Magill congratulated Senator Kirk Winemiller for being named a Regents Professor in January.